Star Trek Beyond Set For $55M Weekend

Trying to overcome the talk of all the ongoing corporate dogfighting over its ownership, Paramount Pictures is taking a break to focus on what it does best – films. “Star Trek Beyond” hits cinemas this week, the third film in the rebooted sci-fi series is expected to pull in a solid $55 million opening with numbers as high as $60 million depending upon word of mouth.

That should be enough to top the weekend box office, but it is down on both $70.2 million launch of “Star Trek Into Darkness” and the $75.2 million bow of 2009’s “Star Trek”. Boasting a costly $185 million production budget, the film will need to do well domestically and internationally to make a profit.

Whatever the case, Paramount clearly believes in the property and have already announced a sequel, which will bring back Chris Hemsworth as Kirk’s father. Its main rivals this weekend is Fox’s “Ice Age: Collision Course” which is expected to pull in $25 million, and the horror tale “Lights Out” which is aiming for a $13-15 million opening.